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About

Runmao Zhao is an emerging researcher at the forefront of agricultural robotics, specializing in intelligent harvesting systems, computer vision, and autonomous navigation for precision agriculture. His most recognized contribution is the development and field evaluation of a robotic harvesting system for high-quality tea plucking (2023), which has garnered 60 citations and represents a significant leap toward automating one of agriculture's most labor-intensive tasks. Building on this foundation, Zhao has pioneered sophisticated detection and motion-planning algorithms, notably deploying the YOLOX-S neural network to identify tea buds within dense canopies in just 17.43 milliseconds, while employing an improved pointer network to optimize picking sequences — work that has attracted 21 citations. His earlier design of an intelligent picking robot for premium tea (2022) further demonstrated his systems-level thinking, integrating Delta robotic arms, Bézier curve trajectory optimization, and sliding-mode control to achieve a 75% picking rate under real-world conditions. Beyond tea harvesting, Zhao has extended his expertise to GNSS-denied agricultural navigation and robust rice-row detection for autonomous machinery. Collectively accumulating over 100 citations, his body of work addresses critical labor shortages in agriculture through practical, field-validated robotic solutions.